Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Giggles of the Ghostly Baby

Sunlight poured into 16-year-old David Emerick III’s room as he lie in bed, a cold fear freezing him motionless as he slowly realized he was not alone.

“I have never felt so helpless,” Emerick said. “I felt afraid for my life.”

And he couldn’t move.

“I had a total paralyzing feeling on my entire body,” he said. “I couldn’t get up or move any part of my body no matter how hard I tried.”

He tried to scream for his mother, but his lips couldn’t move.

“I was aware of my surroundings and it was during the day I could see everything limited from where my head was pointing,” he said. “I knew it wasn’t a dream but it seemed like my hearing was amplified.”

His heart beat in his ears and the sound of a bath running came from somewhere in the room. Then he heard something laugh.

“The noises seemed confusing at first until I was terrified of a clear sound of giggling like a little kid laughing at me in the room,” Emerick said. “I felt very fearful and this is where I began to try and struggle and fight out of the state I was in. I heard the giggles right next to me I knew the direction in which they came.”

Emerick forced his eyes toward a small couch next to his bed and saw his unwelcome visitor.

“It was a ghostly figure of a pale baby and its head was bigger than normal,” Emerick said. “I was able to snap myself out of the state I was in. I got up sweating bad and shook up and confused. I then looked at the couch again; nothing was there and everything was back to normal.”

Although Emerick never saw the giggling, ghostly child again, this wasn’t the last encounter with the unknown in his parent’s house.

“This was the first and only time I could clearly make out the figure in detail and actually hear it,” he said. “I don’t understand why my episodes continued but they did in that house. Just the same paralyzed feeling and unable to get up or call for help plus my hearing would be amplified.”

A few years later, Emerick slept the night in a friend’s guest room, whatever tormented him when he was young came back with fervor.

“It was a violent episode for me where I actually felt the presence angry, or where it actually felt like it was doing something to me,” Emerick said. “One thing that caught my attention during my paralyzed state was my friend’s dogs; they were going crazy scratching on my window very loud with their paws and whimpering.”

From his spot, frozen in bed, Emerick could see the ceiling and details of the room from the light of the moon.

“Then suddenly I felt like my body was floating above the bed slowly, and then it started to get violent. It felt like my body was going in all kinds of directions,” he said. “I could clearly see the ceiling up close, then I would be dragged back down to the bed and I remember [being up to] the ceiling again.”

Emerick was helpless as something shoved his body toward the ceiling then dragged it back to the bed. Then he stopped moving.

“It was a very violent episode,” he said. “I was able to get a view of a dark figure near my bed. I felt the presence was not good and its presence was a feeling of hatred.”

The thing disappeared and so did Emerick’s paralysis.

With the dogs still jumping on the window and barking, Emerick turned on all the lights in the room and looked in the closet and under the bed. No one was there.

“My fear quickly turned to anger,” he said. “I was sick of being harassed and attacked by whatever was causing my episodes.”

Emerick spent the rest of the night on the couch in the living room. That was three years ago, and he hasn’t experienced anything as intense since. He still feels the paralysis, but knows how to combat it. He just wants to know what’s causing it.

Copyright 2010 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Ghost Hunt Gone Wrong -- Part 2



Author’s note: This is the second of a two-part story of a ghost hunt gone wrong.

The group of ghost hunters returned to Vandalia Cemetery in Porterville, Calif., Christmas night. Five days before, Tammy’s group had picked up an EVP there telling them to leave.

So, of course, they had to go back.

“We went at [midnight] and from the minute we walked in nothing felt right,” Tammy said. “This time the air was heavy and extremely cold and it just felt bad – and I mean in an evil way.”

Tammy said a prayer of protection and the group split up. It wasn’t long before the evil materialized.

“We heard a whistle,” Tammy said. “It was nearby but sounded far away.”

They pointed their flashlights toward the source of the whistle and saw a black figure.

“We saw a dark shadow move from one headstone to another,” Tammy said. “We continued watching but didn’t see it again.”

As the black figure moved from sight another figure, glowing and white as though wearing a long flowing gown, stepped into their field of vision. A few seconds later it disappeared and the black shadow came back.

“[The shadow] moved away from us and toward the other side of the cemetery,” Tammy said. “Adam (a newcomer to the group) said he had heard some noises like something walking across the ground.”

The feeling of evil grew as they watched the black thing begin to circle them.

“As we stood watching it move I felt someone touch me on my back,” Tammy said. “At first it was like someone had tapped me on the back with their finger but when I turned around there was no one there.”

A few minutes later it happened again, but more forceful.

“I asked whoever it was that kept touching me if they would like to say something,” Tammy said. “I thought that they were trying to get my attention and so took a few pictures and tried to get some more EVP.”

Both cameras stopped working and fear grabbed hold of the group, so they got into their car and drove away from Vandalia.

“We left the cemetery and came home and that should have been the end of it,” Tammy said. “Unfortunately it was not. In our haste to leave we forgot to say the closing prayer and to tell the spirits not to follow us home.”

That, Tammy and her friends discovered, was a mistake.

“That night we were all spooked but thought it was due to the events we had gone through at the cemetery,” Tammy said. “My daughter and I are a bit sensitive to the presence of spirits and we both felt as though something or someone had followed us home from the cemetery.”

And not just Tammy and her daughter – something followed them all.

“We began experiencing knocking on the walls inside our homes,” Tammy said. “My daughter lives around the corner from me; she called that night after she went home and said that she had a very strong feeling of being watched.”

On Dec. 27 or 28, something visited Adam as he slept at Tammy’s house.

“Adam was asleep in the bedroom and was awakened by someone slapping him in the mouth,” Tammy said. “I had just walked into the room and was nowhere near the bed when he suddenly jumped up and said that something had just smacked him in the mouth and asked if I did it. I didn’t do it and he and I were the only people in there.”

Tammy’s family has also heard the sound of children running around the outside of the house laughing between midnight and 2 a.m.

“It can’t be human children as they would have to pause long enough to open the gates at both sides of the house and these children seem to go right through the gates,” Tammy said. “But when they look out to see who it is there is no one there.”

Whatever is in Tammy’s house has tried to communicate with her.

“I started hearing someone or something knocking on the wall in the kitchen,” Tammy said. “I went and looked thinking someone was doing something outside but there was no one there. It happened again so I asked if there was someone here with me. There was two more knocks. I told who ever it was that I was busy trying to type and they were disturbing me and I want them to stop knocking.”

Her house was quiet the rest of the night, but the activity has not stopped.

“Since our last investigation at Vandalia Cemetery we have experienced a lot of strange occurrences,” she said. “I just want to tell those people out there who don’t know what they are doing but are thinking about going on a ghost hunt, to please be careful. Try to go with a professional paranormal investigation group but be aware that the spirits in cemeteries and haunted houses or anywhere there is paranormal activity can and will follow you home.”

Tammy’s unwanted visitors are still making themselves known.

“We are experiencing the strange noises and the knocking and the children running around the house at all hours,” she said. “But so far no one else has been hit or even physically touched by a spirit. We are hoping that it will stop on it’s own soon.”

Copyright 2010 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Ghost Hunt Gone Wrong -- Part 1


Author’s note: This is the first of a two-part story of a ghost hunt gone wrong.

Tammy felt uncomfortable the December night she went to hunt ghosts in Vandalia Cemetery in Porterville, Calif.

“I went with friends to that cemetery and had quite possibly one of the most frightening times I have had in a very long time,” Tammy said.

The friends had been to the Cemetery in Spring 2009 and saw a “black figure” that “wasn’t human and it didn’t walk or run – it floated from headstone to headstone.” Everyone saw it but Adam, who recently moved to California from Texas.

“My friend Adam had heard about our experiences at Vandalia Cemetery, also known as Scranton cemetery by the high school crowd,” Tammy said. “He wanted to find out for himself what it was like.”

The group arrived at Vandalia around midnight on Dec. 20.

“Before we even left to go to the cemetery I had a very bad feeling and usually I go with my gut feeling,” she said. “But I just figured I was feeling that way because of the events that took place the last time we were there a year or so ago.”

This time, when they stepped out of their cars and approached the cemetery gate, they didn’t see the figure, but the temperature suddenly dropped.

“It seemed to be so much colder inside the cemetery than outside,” Tammy said. “But I tried to ignore it.”

As they passed through the gate, Tammy said a traditional prayer.

“Anytime I have gone on a ghost hunt I have always said a prayer of protection,” she said. “I have always spoken to the spirits to let them know why we are there and that we mean no harm and that they are free to communicate with us on the recorder and get their pictures taken if they wish.”

Then the group wandered the cemetery, taking pictures and trying to capture EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon: voices that appear on audio playback that were not heard at the time of recording).

“From the minute we entered the cemetery I had the feeling of being watched and followed,” Tammy said. “But I continued to walk around and take pictures and speak to the spirits.”

They asked the spirits their names, who was president when they were living, and other general questions. But their ghost hunt didn’t last long.

“We stayed about an hour as that’s all we could stand because it was so cold,” Tammy said.

Before the group left, Tammy said a prayer telling the spirits not to follow them home.

Although the visit to the cemetery seemed relatively quiet, when Tammy and her friends arrived at her house, they found they hadn’t been alone at Vandalia.

“As soon as we got home we listened to the recordings and looked through the pictures,” she said. “What we got was frightening.”

The audio recordings garnered voices that didn’t belong to anyone in the group.

“Most of them were very clear and plain but they were always in a whispery voice,” Tammy said. “At one point Adam could be heard saying, ‘that’s creepy.’ He was referring to a very dark place between some cemetery trees. After Adam makes the comment about the trees being creepy, a scary, creepy, whispery voice can be heard saying, ‘Adam. Get this man; you’re creepy tooooo.’ In those words exactly.”

That voice called Adam’s name multiple times on the audio recordings; but the voice wasn’t the only one Tammy’s group recorded.

“The creepiest voices of all were the ones telling us to leave,” Tammy said.

A voice on the recording Tammy said sounded “freaky scary” screamed at the group to “Get out. Leave.”

“There was a lot that we couldn’t make out clearly but were creepy nonetheless,” she said.

And the EVPs weren’t the only strange evidence Tammy’s group gathered. From the pictures they took on two digital cameras, they caught a mist hanging over some of the tombstones.

“No one was smoking and we did what we could to keep our breath mist from being on the pics,” Tammy said. “We would hold our breath hoping that would make a difference.”

The mist still showed up on the digital photographs. As the group looked over their findings, they decided they wanted more.

“Since nothing bad happened,” Tammy said, “we decided it would be a good idea to go again.”

They soon found that wasn’t a good idea at all.

Next week: Something follows them home.

Copyright 2010 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Grandma Warned About Shadow People

The adults didn’t intend for Samantha to hear their conversation.

Seven-year-old Samantha sat playing at her great-grandmother’s home when her grandmother came to get her.

“I always remember my great-grandma as a fragile old woman sitting in her recliner with thick, knee-high Dallas cowboy socks on watching a televangelist that had a speech problem because he was deaf,” Samantha said. “She was from Texas and she was a strong Christian. I remember her telling me Bible stories and about how prayer can heal anything.”

But that day, the ladies conversation turned toward strange, dark figures both had seen.

“‘It started out as someone I knew, then it was like a ghost, but solid and black,’ my grandmother said, very low to make sure I didn’t hear her,” Samantha, now an adult, said. “My great grandmother replied, ‘I know what you are talking about, like a tall man with no features, just a black cutout of a tall man.’”

They thought the black figures were just dreams, but as they discussed these visitations, the women realized they spoke of the same entity.

“My great-grandmother said something that made me gasp and made them realize I had been listening,” Samantha said. “She said, ‘Sometimes it feels too real, like something is really here, not a dream at all.’ After they heard me laugh they shared a nervous laughter and turned to me and said they were exchanging silly grown up stories and told me not to worry.”

A few weeks later, the thought of the “black cutout of a tall man” still bothered her.

“I worked up the courage to ask my great-grandmother what she had been talking about, and what she told me then will never ever leave my memory,” Samantha said.

Her great-grandmother told her sometimes demons will try to look like someone you know, to trick you into talking to them.

“Then they will change into solid black beings,” Samantha said. “She told me to never ever talk to someone that looked familiar in my dreams because it was just a demon trying to fool me.”

Then she told Samantha something that still terrifies her.

“She told me sometimes demons can come in the daytime as well and they will look just like you and me,” Samantha said.

Years later, while living in her grandmother’s house, Samantha discovered what her great-grandmother was talking about.

“I started noticing the feeling of being stared at and turning around to see black beings from the corner of my eye, and waking up in the middle of the night to see a dark figure leaving my bedroom,” she said.

She’s also seen this figure in the bedroom of her then-three-month-old niece.

“It was an early morning and I was at my older sister’s [house],” she said. “My niece was laying on my sister’s bed and I was standing in the doorway that separated the bathroom and the bedroom.”

She stood about five feet from the bed and the adjacent closet with full-length mirror doors.

“I had turned to face the mirror and in the reflection I could see a black figure under the bed,” Samantha said. “It looked like a head and shoulders and it made a swoop with its arm like it was trying to move something. I jumped back and screamed.”

Samantha’s sister told her she had seen the same thing three weeks earlier.

She hasn’t seen the dark man since moving out of her grandparents’ home, but on a recent stay-over, the dark man visited her again.

“Last weekend (Dec. 18-19, 2009) I stayed the night at their home with my dog,” Samantha said. “My dog usually sleeps close to me in bed and has never, ever, acted this way at my grandparents’ home before.”

Samantha awoke to find her dog sitting at the foot of the bed staring intently out the bedroom door.

“It looked unnaturally dark,” she said. “As soon as I muttered my dog’s name to get his attention, it seems like something had been standing in front of the bedroom door. It stepped away and I could see the moonlight coming in the bathroom window down the hallway.”

She slept the rest of the night with a desk lamp on.

“It didn’t seem like it was in the room,” she said. “I had seen something similar when I was younger, it was always in my room or leaving my room. I know my family’s religious background plays a part in them believing these things are demons. My boyfriend would dismiss it as silly or imaginary and my mom would tell me I need more Jesus.”

Copyright 2010 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.